Why The Authority Of Your Domain Matters
Google representatives consistently deny the use of “domain authority” as a ranking factor. But according to Google’s John Mueller, they do have a sitewide score that “maps to similar things.”
Plus, when we studied the correlation between Domain Rating and keyword rankings for 218,713 domains, we found that the two correlate well.
This makes Domain Rating a useful metric by which to estimate a websites ability to get organic traffic from Google.
Disclaimer: This is a correlation study. It does not prove causation.
Do You Need A Com Domain
There are so many options for top level domains but not all of them rank well in SEO: why .com remains the convention.
You want to stake out a piece of turf on the internet, but you’re not sure whether to register yourapp.com or yourapp.net. What’s the difference between the hundreds of different top-level domains? This article delves into the hows and whys of the .com convention, and gives you some tasty alternatives to the regular ol’ URLs.
When To Use Net
While a .com domain is probably what youre looking for, it can be useful to know when a .net domain should be used. Often, a .net domain can be found when a website is offering a networking, internet, or data hosting service. This type of domain name was originally intended to be used as a way to signify different internet providers, but nowadays these businesses stick to using their .com domain variants instead.
More commonly, .net domains are used to signify a particular catalogue or system of distinct entities. For example, some websites that connect various freelance writers might have a .net domain extension as it denotes a network.
Also Check: How Much Should A Domain Name Cost Per Year
Does Domain Extension Affect Seo
Its always beneficial to think about SEO when creating or changing a website. Your sites generic top-level domain will not affect its performance in search engines. Your top-level domain influences brand perception and trust more than anything, but s it does not take TLD into account when listing search results. Youre better off implementing other SEO best practices to climb the rankings.
There is one caveat here. If two or more websites share the same name and implement the same SEO practice, but have different extensions, the website with the .com domain extension will rank highest in most results. This is because people tend to trust .com websites and will generally choose them over .net or .biz alternatives, and websites with more traffic perform better in search engines.
Unlike the TLD, the name component of your domain does affect SEO. Your sites name tells people and search engines what your organization is and/or does.
What You Aim To Achieve With Your Website
The primary purpose of your website is a key determinant ofthe extension you should choose. Are you selling a product or service? Are youproviding a specific type of information? Are you running a charitableorganization? Whatever it is that you do, there is a domain extension for it.
- .net stands for network. Umbrella sites, or websites that accommodate several smaller sites, usually use it. For example, service providers, such as the likes of internet service providers , email services, and more, would use .net.
- .com stands for commercial and is used by a wide range of businesses. The .com extension can be used by product sellers, bloggers, service companies, brands, and more. Virtually anyone can use this extension with the domain name of their choosing, regardless of what that they do.
For businesses, if the .com extension is not available, .netcan serve as an alternative.
Also Check: How To Get Free Net Domain
Boost Your Local Seo With A Geo
Many websites target a specific geographic region. For example, Google.fr, Google.co.uk, and Google.de all target different countries. When youre focused on a target audience in a specific part of the world, you may want to consider using a local domain extension:
By using a geo-specific domain extension, you can immediately communicate the location where your website is based. This can be beneficial if your site is optimized for customers in a particular area. For example, you might translate your e-commerce content into multiple languages, and then publish different versions of your online store for each demographic.
Alternatively, you may opt for a geo-specific domain extension if youre trying to capitalize on your connection to the local area. For example, you might use locally-grown ingredients in all your products, or operate in an industry that has strong geographic ties, such as a museum, gallery, or other local tourist attraction. By choosing a geo-specific domain, you can emphasize this connection, even if youre promoting your products and services to an international audience.
Incorporating a local extension into your web address can also be beneficial for local SEO. In particular, a geo-specific domain extension can help your site rank higher in countries where people are more inclined to opt for a local link, as compared to an international URL.
When To Use A Com Domain Extension
The .com domain extension is short for commercial, and it is the most widely used extension. Its recommended that any professional entity use .com because it conveys credibility and is easier to remember than other lesser-known extensions. It is also the most recognizable and is seen as a reliable marker for trustworthiness and professionalism. For that reason, many individuals and organizations use it in addition to commercial businesses.
Given the popularity of the .com domain extension, it can be very difficult to find an available .com. In the case where there are no suitable .com extensions available, businesses may consider using an alternative domain extension, such as a .net or a country code such as .us or .ca if it means getting their desired domain name .
Want a .com but struggling to find an available one? Get ideas on choosing a domain name.
Also Check: How Much Should A Domain Name Cost Per Year
Seo Best Practices For Urls
Search engine optimization can feel super arbitrary, but there are some strategies to help your website rank. The most important thing you can do is familiarize yourself with the different factors that help your website show up at the top of users searches. A majority of SEO strategy is pretty straightforward and can be mastered using common sense. When you make your website, blog, or online store, think about it from a robots point of view. Keep your domain name simple. Use keywords that are relevant to your site or product. Try to use as few words as possible and minimize hyphens in domain names, but use them to indicate spaces in the extensions and folder names after the TLD. The most important thing to remember, however, is that your domain should be relevant and representative of your site as a whole.
Start Your Com Or Net Website Now
Getting started with either the .com or the .net extension means you need hosting. ITX Design provides the best hosting on the planet with the top support team. If youre ready to take your project online, trust us with your hosting.
Maybe youre not sure what type of hosting you need or you still have questions about domain names. We are available to help you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Contact our support team today and we will be happy to answer all your questions and make hosting recommendations.
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Is Your Business Name Common
Another factor to consider is the popularity of yourbusiness name. If your business name is popular, then it is very likely thatthe .com extension for your desired business name is unavailable. If that isthe case, then .net would be an excellent alternative for you.
Last year, over 46% ofwebsites used the .com extension, while only 3.7% used the .net extension.It might be easier for you to register a domain with the .net extension becauseit is more likely that someone already registered your name with the .comextension.
However, we recommend that you check the availability ofdifferent domain names and extensions before making a decision. Taking the timeto plan your website strategy ahead of time will save you a lot of time andenergy when you start developing your site and building your brand.
Make Your Domain Name Memorable
Strive for domain names that are short, easy to remember, easy to type, and easy to say. This is valuable for word-of-mouth advertising because those visitors will need to visit your domain directly, but it also matters for processing fluency. An implicit cognitive bias, processing fluency is the concept that we remember and have more positive associations with things that we can easily say and easily think about, and that includes pronounceability in our own minds. So, stay away from domain names that include numbers or other non-standard characters, use unusual spelling, or are longer than about 15 characters or so.
Because of search engine’s growing reliance on accessibility and usability as a ranking factor, the easier a domain is to read for humans, the better it is for search engines.
From “15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs”
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How To Do Competitor Analysis For Seo
The actual work of doing an analysis is relatively simple. Theres just a lot of little things you need to look at so you get the whole picture.
Keyword research happens first to see what topics your competitors are ranking well on and what they arent.
Then we dig into your competitors actual blog post cadence and post length to get a baseline of activity we should consider for our own posts.
We will need to pick a topic and look at the individual page ranking for that topic.
A deep dive into the page will give us an idea of what elements are available to engage the reader.
- number of blog posts you need to write each week
- average length your posts should be to be considered thorough enough on a topic
- sort of imagery required and how many images for each page
- number and type of CTAs for each page
Armed with this knowledge, youll have the baseline of work you will need to do on your blog posts and your blog in general, to have a chance of beating organic competitors in search results.
Lets get started.
When Should You Choose A Com Domain Name
The .com top-level domain extension has become synonymous with the internet & its the most preferred choice for most websites. More than 46% of all domain names registered worldwide are .com domains.
The main reason for this is that this extension is more effortless for users to remember than any other. Due to the enormous popularity of .com domain names, they are also easier to identify, promote and help you grow your business.
If you are looking to develop any commercial website, always try to use a .com domain extension. Thus, it gives you a simple and easy-to-remember address and makes your website look more professional and objective.
Also Check: What Is The Io Domain Used For
When Should You Choose A Net Domain Name
The .net domain extension is intended for internet providers, networks, website/database/email hosting, or other related services.
You can make use of a .net domain name if it suits your brand. However, you will need some different marketing knowledge and planning to do so.
An example of this practice is Behance.net. It is an online design community that uses a .net domain extension for its website.
The idea of the site is precisely to be a network of artists, designers, and companies looking for talent, so the use of the .net domain is well justified.
Almost 4% of all domains registered on the internet use the .net domain extension.
Domain name registrars have begun to introduce .net and other domain extensions as alternatives to .com. This ends up giving the impression that the extension is used more than it is.
How We Calculate Our Domain Rating Score
Domain Rating looks at the quantity and quality of external backlinks to a website.
Here’s how we calculate this metric in simple terms:
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Look at how many unique domains link to the target website
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Look at the “authority” of those linking domains
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Take into account how many unique domains each of those sites link to
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Apply some math and coding magic to calculate raw DR scores
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Plot these scores on a 100-point scale
Domain Rating doesn’t take into account any other variables like link spam, traffic, domain age, etc.
Learn more about Domain Rating here.
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Key Finding: Which Domain Extension Is Best In 2021
- .com domains are over 33% more memorable than URLs with other top-level domains.
- .com is the #1 most trusted TLD, with .co in a close second place.
- When people try to remember a URL, theyre 3.8 times more likely to assume it ends in .com than anything else.
In short, our study shows that .com outperforms all other domain extension options. But read on for more details and to see how 7 other TLDs performed in our test.
You might be surprised.
You can also to get a PDF version of the full results, including a few bonus demographic-specific takeaways that arent in this article.
Ly Sy Tv And Other Country Domains Are Risky Do Not Buy Them
Im updating this post to include a warning about .LY and other vanity domain names that belong to foreign countries. For example, .LY belongs to Libya and in the past, the registrar has been shut down due to wars within Libya. In 2011, this resulted in the company Letter.ly getting shut down because their domain expired during that shutdown and the domain was quickly snatched up by another company when they returned. These foreign-based registrars do not abide by US law and are extremely risky to purchase. For the record, .SY belongs to Syria and .TV belongs to the Tuvalu Islands, a series of nine slivers of earth in the middle of the South Pacific, with a population of about 10,000. Buy these extensions at your own risk.
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Buy Similar Domain Names
Purchase easy misspells and other popular TLDs if they are available to keep anyone from squatting on your business name.
This could be costly later once you have built up a brand and the domain squatters know that you dont really have any negotiating leverage.
I once worked with a global brand that had to spend a couple of thousand dollars per domain name to successfully reclaim domains that could have been purchased for a few dollars when they first launched.